Medal Of Honor Sparks Great Controversy
Taliban characters in the upcoming game: Medal Of Honor
At this moment in time, as I'm sure you know, NATO forces are fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Taliban are an armed force of terrorists that commit atrocities daily. They kill civilians almost for sport. They are waging a guerilla war against UK and USA forces. Bomb disposal teams are in a living hell, IED's are practically everywhere. Around 7,500 IED's were used in 2009 in Afghanistan.
United Kingdom Defence Secretary Liam Fox:
At the hands of the Taliban, children have lost fathers and wives have lost husbands.
Medal Of Honor takes place in Helmand Province. This is the 'hot-point' of the Taliban. However, they can't bomb it since civilians are there as well. The war is tough and difficult. The people in the land are in terror of the Taliban and are murdered and abused by them. In Medal Of Honor Multiplayer (unsure about Single Player) you may play as the Taliban. This has caused outrage in the United Kingdom and some gamers living in Afghanistan and neighbouring countries have felt physically sick and couldn't move due to disgust after seeing the characters on screen. The Game is likely to be banned in the United Kingdom.
United Kingdom Defence Secretary Liam Fox:
I am disgusted and angry. It's hard to believe any citizen of our country would wish to buy such a thoroughly un-British game. I would urge retailers to show their support for our armed forces and ban this tasteless product
Personally, I'll probably buy the game (if I can), however, I do see these points and while I believe that video games shouldn't be considered in terms of morality as reality I do understand and I'll probably only be slightly uncomfortable about killing United Kingdom Soldiers. However, in previous hit games such as the Call Of Duty series, you've been able to kill United States soldiers. These games haven't been banned in the USA.
To tell the truth, I hope that Medal Of Honor won't be banned in the UK. It's one of the biggest and greatest game series of all time and I'm excited that it's making a comeback. The United States Army is working directly with it, from a professional point of view it's had the best trailers for a video game yet. However, the Defence Secretary will have a lot of leeway and it's definitely possible that UK gamers won't see the game hit their shelves.
Compare and Contrast:
Taliban forces in reality.
Taliban forces in-game.
EA's response to the matter:
The format of the new Medal of Honour game merely reflects the fact that every conflict has two sides.
We give gamers the opportunity to play both sides. Most of us have been doing this since we were seven: someone plays the cop, someone must be robber.
